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Tuesday 3rd
March 2020
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09:07 GMT
Yesterday started cold and wet, but the
rain was over before sunset, and for the next few
hours it was heavily overcast, but the clouds soon
thinned out, and broke up. That gave some very
pleasant sunny intervals. They started earlier
than forecast - maybe even before midday. The rest
of the daylight hours were bright, and sometimes
sunny. The afternoon temperature was around 9° C.
With a fairly light breeze, it almost felt warm
with the sun on my back.
Today seems to be one of those days where
the weather forecast keeps changing to try and
keep track of reality. The day started with quite
a clear sky, and a frost. There are some clouds
about that occasionally drift across the sun, but
so far this morning it has been generally sunny.
The latest revision to the forecast says the
sunshine will end with some showers at 11am. By
midday, and for the rest of the day it will be, or
may be, dry, but overcast. The afternoon
temperature will only be 9° C, but with no
sunshine, it will feel rather chilly. With today's
weather being constantly revised it is hard to
believe that the forecast for tomorrow could be
anywhere near correct. The day will start with a
frost, and then the temperature will probably
climb to a maximum of just 7° C. That much is
probably correct. The much more variable bit says
that the whole day will be overcast, and that it
will rain from about 1pm until the end of the day.
On the left is an excerpt from a later revision of
the weather forecast for yesterday. The revision
had been made at approx 4pm, and as it shows,
there was a prediction for hail at 6pm. It didn't
happen. As far as I am aware it stayed dry, and at
6pm the sky was still fairly clear after the
earlier sunshine. If the sun had not set 15
minutes earlier, it would still have been sunny at
6pm. Since the BBC decided to use a cheap American
company for their weather forecasts they seem to
be increasingly unreliable.
Before embarking on my official exercise
for the day, which is really just a cover for
going to meet Angela in the pub at lunchtime (or
usually is, but not always), I went to Aldi to buy
some stuff, and I bought quite a lot of stuff.
I don't think I really had a shopping list
planned in my head, and mostly made things up
as went along. I bought some meat, some
vegetables, and some booze. I also stocked up on
some sachets of Heinz flavoured beans, and took a
chance on a couple of sachets of Patak's curry
sauces. One of the latter would have an
interesting life when I used it to flavour some
skinless/boneless chicken thighs that I intended
to have for lunch.
It wasn't perfect when I went out for my
walk yesterday, but it wasn't bad. The clouds were
moving quite fast, and sometimes the sky was
almost clear, and sometimes the sun would dim when
a cloud passed in front of it. When I took the
picture above, the sun was being diffused by some
thin cloud, and made the picture look a bit flat.
A few minutes later, as I walked in the direction
I was facing when I took the photo, the sun came
out again at full strength, and my back began to
feel very warm in my black, leather-like jacket.
I tried a new route to the pub yesterday. I
first walked all the way to the Ladywell Road end
of the park, and then I swung around by the
entrance, and walked down the other side of the
pub (the right hand side in this picture). There
are 4 possible exits on this side. The first
crosses the river, and comes out by the back of St
Mary's church, and almost next to the pub. I
sometimes use that exit, but not this time.
The next exit is by the weir that is often
interesting to watch. Sometimes watching the water
roar over the rocks when the river is high.
Sometimes to watch the ducks on the calm of the
upstream side of the weir, and once to watch a
family of rats explore their local environment -
on a day when I didn't have a decent camera with
me. The exit here leads into the hospital grounds.
The next exit comes out onto Albacore
Crescent right next to the entrance of the
hospital staff car park (or one of them). This is
now of some importance because I can (naughtily)
cut through the staff car park to pass in front of
Angela's office, and wave to her. I did this for
the first time yesterday, and got a cheerful wave
back, plus a mouthed "see you soon" from Angela.
The final exit is at the far end of the
athletic track, or "Ladywell Arena" as it is now
grandly called. It exits on to what is known as
the Rushey Green triangle - a network of roads
bounded on two sides by the South Circular road,
and the main road between Catford and Lewisham.
The third side is bordered by the railway, the
park, and the hospital, and strictly speaking it
is really more a sort of rectangular shape with
lumps, but triangle sounds nice.
If trees ever decide to take over the world
we are doomed ! This tree refuses to say no
to a steel mesh fence. It has weaved a path
through it. Further up the same fence there is a
thicker branch that is growing around, and
seemingly absorbing some of the mesh within
itself.
I resisted the temptation to take even more
pictures of ducks yesterday, but having had a
refresher on water bird names, I decided to take a
picture of what I can now say with some confidence
is a Moorhen. If it's beak was white, and it had
white legs it would be a coot. I do see Coots on
the river from time to time, but not yesterday,
and maybe not at this time of year.
After waving to Angela in her office, I
arrived at the pub just after 1pm, and knowing
that Angela would be along soon, I bought her a
drink. After 5 or 6 minutes she arrived, and we
had a nice lunchtime together. We swapped tales of
our weekends, and while Angela's started better
than mine, it felt like mine had ended better.
Angela had taken Friday off work, and so her
weekend started on Thursday night. That night she
spent with her daughter drinking the vodka I had
given Angela when she said she was not feeling
very happy. It was evidently good vodka, and both
Angela and her daughter, Miranda, enjoyed it.
Evidently Miranda enjoyed it enough to send me a
message on Thursday night to thank me (I'm sure I
have already mentioned this).
Angela was in a very relaxed mood in the
pub. As usual I probably delude myself, but it
feels like we have moved even closer to each
other. It is a bit weird, but it seems that Angela
enjoyed being waved to in her office as much as I
enjoyed doing it. Angela did not comment on her
work situation. She actually prefers it when there
is lots to do because it makes the day go faster.
I am not sure if yesterday was a slack day for
her, but she announced that if it were possible
she could stay in the pub all afternoon.
That is not a wholly unusual comment, but
what was unusual is that she definitely hung out
to the very last seconds before going back to
work, and that involved an unusual third drink -
but just a small one. I opted for a single
Jameson's whiskey, and it came in a very pretty
glass that was intended for Glen Livet whisky.
Angela took a liking to the glass, and it seemed
to fall into her handbag !
Yesterday I walked her right back to her
office door (or actually the door into her office
block). I suggested I give her a quick hug while
we were shielded from the office windows by a big
shrub. She said she didn't care who was looking,
and gave me a very warm hug. Later on, a little
while after I got home, I sent her a message
saying that I didn't know how or when, but we must
meet in a pub sometime when she didn't have to
rush back to work, and could spend a more relaxed
time together. Her reply was just a simple
"Definitely ! xx". When that day will come, and
even if it will come, is anyone's guess.
I was brought down to earth when I got
home. Before going out I decided to test one of
the sachets of curry sauce I had bought from Aldi
in the morning. I poured it over three
skinless/boneless chicken thighs, and put them in
my mini oven for about 30 minutes to half cook
them. I then went back to turn them over, and
spoon some of the sauce over the chicken before
giving it another 20 minutes cooking. One thing I
noticed, but didn't realise it was very
significant, was that the mechanical time was not
ticking when I went to turn the chicken over.
I had left the chicken cooking when I went
out for my walk (and pub visit) the idea was that
it would finish cooking, and I would just have to
heat it up for 5 minutes when I got home. What I
found when I got in was that the time had stuck,
and the chicken and sauce had been cooking, and
then cremating for almost 90 minutes. The picture
above shows the charred mess I found. Strangely
enough it was still edible, although instead of
being a nice moist lunch it was dry and crispy. It
had also shrunk so much that I had some other
stuff to eat to make up for the void.
I was expecting a parcel delivery
yesterday, and had been given a time slot of
(roughly) between 3 and 4pm (which made it safe to
go out at lunchtime). I was a bit surprised when
there was a knock at the door not long after I had
got home. I assumed the courier was early because
the item, a spare battery for my Sony Mini Disc
player, was what I was expecting. Just after 3pm
there was a knock at the door, and this time it
was the courier I was expecting with the battery I
was expecting. I had ordered two batteries, and
the first to arrive was not expected to arrive for
a few days yet.
I now have two working batteries for my
Sony and Kenwood portable Mini Disc
player/recorders. I had to make up a new charger
for the Sony machine because the charger I thought
I was going to use had too low an output voltage,
but both batteries for the Sony machine are now
fully charged. I think I will have to find another
charger for the Kenwood machine because the output
voltage of the charger I was going to use seems
too low to 100% charge the new batteries (but it
does charge them very slowly). I may take the Sony
machine out with a stereo machine today to see
what sounds I can capture.
Dinner was a more carefully controlled
version of lunch. I didn't have any
skinless/boneless chicken thighs, but I did have
them with the skin on, and the bone in. I used the
other sachet of curry sauce, and put them in the
mini oven. The time definitely gets stuck around
the 20 minute mark, but I kept a close eye on the
cooking, and they didn't burn this time. They were
sort of nice, but I am unsure if they were so nice
that I will actually seek out more sachets of
those sauces. I'll probably pick up a few spares
for future use if they are easily spotted in Aldi.
My dinner was essentially just the chicken
with (sort of) baked on sauce. I followed it with
two Braeburn apples with 4 or 5 sugar free
digestive biscuits. Later in the evening I would
snack on some mixed nuts. The system must have
worked a bit because my blood glucose has finally
dropped to a more satisfactory level at last -
although I wasn't specifically aiming for that. My
food consumption was really on autopilot
yesterday, but my brain often seems to know what
it is doing.
Yesterday I got my energy bills. It seems
that I have built up a very big credit on my gas
bill because my gas usage is very low - very, very
low compared to a house with gas central heating.
My electricity usage is not low, and I have quite
a big bill to pay. I have to keep reminding myself
that my monthly standing order will actually take
care of quite a bit of the amount demanded, and so
my extra outlay will not be too bank breaking !
That electricity bill did make me think
that I ought to reduce my consumption. It will go
down naturally as the days continue to warm up,
but last night for the first time since last
October (maybe a bit later) I left all the heating
off last night.At first my bedroom didn't feel too
cool, but by the time I went to bed I was glad to
get under the duvet. I think it was something like
4am when I got up for a pee that my resolve broke,
and I put the heater on low so I wouldn't be
freezing when I got up. That was probably a very
wise move considering the morning started with a
frost.
It is still bright outside, but sadly we
seem to have lost the sunshine. Maybe the worst
threats of the forecast will come true...or maybe
not. The latest revision to the forecast says
there should be sunny spells until midday when it
will rain. it would seem that it will only rain
for the first half of my walk today, and that it
will be dry by the time I get to the pub. By 3pm
the sun may come out again, and there could be
sunny spells until sunset. I think I'll take this
latest revision of the forecast with a pinch of
salt.
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